If you aren’t familiar with By the Book, it is a self-proclaimed blend of a reality show and self-help podcast hosted by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer. The premise: They read popular self-help books and live by them for a full two weeks (convincing their husband to participate too)! And we are talking popular books — everything from Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up to Shonda Rhimes’s Year of Yes to Alex Comfort’s classic The Joy of Sex. Don’t you just love the concept?!
Greenberg and Meinzer’s new book How to Be Fine synthesises what they’ve learned — the good, the bad, and the ugly — from living by 50 different self-help books. (Yes, 50!) By reading this one book, you can gather the knowledge and experience they have gained over years of putting these books into practice without having to read all 50 yourself. Consider this a complete win!
The result of synthesising their podcast knowledge is a hilarious, thoughtful, and educational reading experience. They don’t always agree on how helpful the books are, but they do agree that not every book is for every person. This is spot on, as much of the self-help genre is subjective to who you are and what works for you as an individual. In fact, they comment on how the person writing the book is generally writing about what has helped them … which may or may not resonate with you. And the unique twist here is that the book has a bit of a memoir feel, as Greenberg and Meinzer share their own past experiences, how these experiences affect their approach to the books, as well how the books may or may not have worked for each of them.
The book is smartly broken down into three sections: what worked for them, what didn’t work, and things they believe more books should include. Greenberg and Meinzer have combined their lessons into bite-sized ideas that are easy for the reader to digest. For example: things like positive self-talk and decluttering fall into the “what worked” category, dieting and waking up early fall into the “what didn’t work” category, and checking in with your feelings in an example of an area the authors feel is underrepresented in the self-help genre. From the perspective of a therapist (yes, I’m a licensed therapist in my “day job”), Greenberg and Meinzer really get it right with the way they have grouped their lessons learned. They nail core tenets that tend to be proven over and over to be helpful for a broad range of people (i.e., addressing positive and negative thoughts/beliefs, living in the moment) and let much of the fluffy, ineffective pop psychology fall to the wayside.
With an amazing blend of humour, critical thinking, and implementation of more strategies than you could ever imagine, How to Be Fine is a book you don’t want to miss. And definitely check out the podcast too — you are guaranteed to laugh AND learn something!
How To Be Fine is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers. Thank you to William Morrow Books for providing the finished copy of this fantastic book. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Jolenta Greenberg is a comedian, podcaster, pop culture commentator, and self-proclaimed reality television historian. As a performer, her stand-up and storytelling have been featured all over NYC. She’s a Moth StorySLAM winner and from 2014-2016 she held a comedic residency at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. Her credits include hosting Stitcher’s By The Book; story editing for Risk! Hosted by Kevin Allison, and producing for Freakonomics Radio. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Kristen Meinzer is a podcast host, producer, and former director of nonfiction programming for Slate’s sister company, Panoply. Her hosting credits include Stitcher/Panoply’s By the Book, Stitcher’s We Love You (And So Can You), CNN’s Decades of Movies podcast, Panoply’s When Meghan Met Harry, and WNYC/PRI’s Movie Date. Her producing credits include Happier with Gretchen Rubin, The Sporkful, Food 52’s Burnt Toast, Girlboss Radio, and other award-winning shows. Kristen’s work has been celebrated in Time, the Washington Post, Bust, Buzzfeed, the Evening Standard, Real Simple, Indiewire, and dozens of other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A humorous and insightful look into what advice works, what doesn’t, and what it means to transform yourself, by the co-hosts of the popular By the Book podcast.
In each episode of their podcast By the Book, Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer take a deep dive into a different self-help book, following its specific instructions, rules, and advice to the letter. From diet and productivity to decorating to social interactions, they try it all, record themselves along the way, then share what they’ve learned with their devoted and growing audience of fans who tune in.
In How to Be Fine, Jolenta and Kristen synthesize the lessons and insights they’ve learned and share their experiences with everyone. How to Be Fine is a thoughtful look at the books and practices that have worked, real talk on those that didn’t, and a list of philosophies they want to see explored in-depth. The topics they cover include:
Getting off your device, engaging in positive self-talk, downsizing, admitting you’re a liar, meditation, going outside, getting in touch with your emotions, and seeing a therapist.
Before they began their podcast, Jolenta wanted to believe the promises of self-help books, while Kristen was very much the skeptic. They embraced their differences of opinion, hoping they’d be good for laughs and downloads. But in the years since launching the By the Book, they’ve come to realize their show is about much more than humor. In fact, reading and following each book’s advice has actually changed and improved their lives. Thanks to the show, Kristen penned the Amish romance novel she’d always joked about writing, traveled back to her past lives, and she broached some difficult conversations with her husband about their marriage. Jolenta finally memorized her husband’s phone number, began tracking her finances, and fell in love with cutting clutter.
Part memoir, part prescriptive handbook, this honest, funny, and heartfelt guide is like a warm soul-baring conversation with your closest and smartest friends.”
